Friday, June 30, 2006

A Whole New Mind... expand by Spirit

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
According to Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, we are moving from a left brain society to right brain initiative. Which means we are tuning into our senses... ability to design, create, relate, care.

In the past, theory had it that we are led by the left side of our brain in our thinking and then move to our right. Recent research has indicated we may have been functionally working backwards... dysfunctionally using our mental system.
The left side is dominated by logic, analytical and rationalizing activity; sequential and literal.
While the right is more imaginative, nonlinear and instinctive; metaphorical and contextual. The brain is actually a right to left process. The right shows direction; the left tells how to get there.

With the advance of computer technology which can process data faster than the best of left brains, and low cost production for technical procurement in India, we need to advance the other side of our brain... the right side. The result is we are moving very quickly into a dominating Hi Concept, Hi Touch society… rediscovering our true human distinction.

The right brain activity of the dreamers, visionaries and emotionally aware people will become the demand of the future. Machines/technology are great at moving mass and running data(left brain processes), but the right brain is great at getting ideas, linking seemingly unrelated information, making meaning of experiences, interpreting emotional engagement, and heightening human interaction potential. As Pink develops his point, he identifies 6 new senses of the Conceptual and Relating age.
1. Not just function, but also Design
"The essence can be defined as the human nature to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature, to serve needs, and give meaning to our lives. " We all were born as artists, to create what has not yet been created.
2. Not just argument but also Story
Story is when Hi concept and Hi touch intersect. Story goes beyond giving facts but shares feelings and emotions of those involved. It educates and inspires.
3. Not just focus but also Symphony
Symphony synergies rather than just analyzes. It corrals diversity and puts it into productive, pleasing process, or mutually acceptable resolve. It can sort out the big picture and point out what really matters.
4. Not just logic but also Empathy
Insensitivity to why a person does something is replaced to insight, understanding to why a person does something. It's getting out of yourself and seeing in the perspective of someone else. It emotionally perceives versus intellectually evaluates.
5. Not just seriousness but also Play
The logical brain limits thinking to known data. The right brain sees unlimited potential for anything. It sees potential in the future. When we are having fun, we expand more possibilities into our lives. Imagination thru play produces personal joy and fulfillment... it truly inspires us.
6. Not just accumulation but also Meaning
Man does not exist just to avoid pain or gain pleasure. Our deepest desire is to find meaning in who we are and why we do what we do. Spirituality becomes the number one desire in life, the integral core for happiness.

Note more on Daniel Pink, and A Whole New Mind at:
http://www.danpink.com/

In Spirit, I see the process as
from Spirit
to Right Brain
to Left Brain.

God made man... male and female. God made male and female to be One, One in Him His Spirit. Spirit is the origin of all things. So the normal flow of things is Spirit to One man. Within man (a person) we have left and right brains... the two intended to be one.

Robert Cooper in Get Out of Your Own Way says we have 4 brains... which include our hearts and gut(i.e., what does your heart think, what does you gut tell you.) The Spirit which is about the heart and provides Spiritual intelligence of origins unexplained in our thinking (we commonly call this intuition).Spirit tells us things we have no way of knowing but only through Supernatural foresight, insight being revealed to us.

The flow of process for insight and thought is
from Spirit (God's inspired direction)
to Right brain(vision, proper emotions, incorruptible values)
to the Left brain(means, methods, structures and actions).

This is a fluid flow of how to do things. It's from "being to doing." To “do” only after "being" has been inspired, sees, values, and motivates "doing" on a right path.

So thoughts of the mind properly going from Right to Left (its natural flow) reflect many of Pink's observations.
To design... absorbing God's created potential
To story... as Jesus used parables to teach, those who manage, guide, lead use Inspired, heart-led stories to be more effective.
To symphonize... bring diverse people, ideas, directions into orchestrated flow with love and harmony intertwined.
To empathize... through Spiritual insight in people's hearts. Jesus knew the heart and motives of men. He responded tenderly to the broken hearted and sternly to the hard hearted.
To play... to interact joyfully, lovingly, caringly for each other. Having fun with each person's own unique person's abilities.
To be meaningful... Jesus was on a mission to restructure a world civilization and invites us to share with Him in the same mission. We are change agents for transformational change; Soul-rebuilders for a great society.

Renew your mind and be transformed by renewing your mind (Romans 12:2)
Geffry Fields has practical steps on how to renew your mind at:
http://jesusisus.blogspot.com/2005/07/practical-side-of-living-jesus-spirit.html

Don't be conformed to the corrupt thinking evident around you. Think differently. Use both sides of the brain, but lead with the Spirit to direct all parts of the brain.

Love God in Spirit with ALL your mind. Love your friends, acquaintances within Jesus... as one mind. Make your mind the slave of Spirit, a slave to Love.

In this Love you will have the creative Power of God, the spell-bound communication skills of Jesus with fascination, intrigue, insight beyond what your brain alone can originate.You will move from living in the natural to living in the Supernatural.

You will have Supernatural perception, love and care for man beyond the surface of what you see. You will see their inner souls as Jesus did… empathizing and symphonizing. Inspired joy and happiness create the moment as the mind directs you to meaningful purpose.

With All your mind let love dominate your thoughts, feelings, expressions. With Love, all rules of life fall into place.

Love heals, Love binds, Love creates.

Let Love Rule;
Build a Whole, renewed, Mind.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Getting Inspired Ideas

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

So where do we get ideas?

Recently the Wall Street Journal said that Group Brainstorming was not the best place to get ideas.
John Clark, a former university dean of engineering, says “brainstorming sessions come in handy to distribute blame in the event of failure." But in his experience, most often someone hijacks the topic at hand, tries to prove everyone else wrong, works to impress the superiors who are present or just plain blathers for his own enjoyment.

“Sometimes group sessions can result in one person's bad idea tainting and limiting the range of others' ideas. The best way to get good ideas is to get people to write them down privately and then bring them in. You want group diversity but no more than five to seven people or you risk ending up with 'co-blabberation,' “ warns David Perkins, Harvard School of Education.

"If you stand back and think about [brainstorming], it's plainly inefficient," says Prof. Perkins. But, he says, "sometimes you take the brainstorming approach because you want everyone to feel they have a voice."
(Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2006, "Brainstorming Works Best if People Scramble For Ideas on Their Own." Cubicle Culture By Jared Sandberg)
Note Susan Ohanian’s response to this article:

http://susanohanian.org/show_outrages.html?id=6184

In the E-Myth Mastery, Michael Gerber suggests you ask your staff to each come up with a list of ten ideas, bring them to a group meeting and then cultivate creative experiences by making composites of the ideas, and then organize them into
Medium of communication,
Content that is most essential,
and Process to get the message out.
http://www.emythmastery.com/

In Thinking for a Change, John Maxwell provides this list for creating creativity.

1. Remove creativity killers
(negative attitudes, criticism early on)
2. Think creatively by asking the right questions
(Brian Tracy says when you ask yourself a question it obligates the subconscious to come up with answers… give time and place for subconscious to respond.)
3. Develop a creative environment
(Maxwell says he has a special thinking chair.)
4. Spend time with other creative people
5. Get out of your box... change personal patterns in how you do things.
(Note some of book reviews of Thinking for a Change at Amazon.com)

Business Week has just launched a quarterly magazine called IN Inside Innovation.
One way to innovate is through ethnography.
Ethnography is a process companies are using to build products in flow with how people use them by "living and breathing with the customer." It is an in-depth
art of tracing the detail patterns of how people do and use things.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/

The origin of all ideas is in Spirit.
In the Beginning God created....
God is Spirit.

Spirit still creates and re-creates constantly.

Oswald Chambers says,
“The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.”
(My Utmost for His Highest, June 13)


Creativity comes out of having fun with ideas, being around those we love and feed us in Spirit. When Spirit is flowing back and forth in love and acceptance, creativity flows as well.

Getting too serious kills creativity.

Jesus poked fun at what others took too seriously.
Look at the conversations He had with the Pharisees. He made light of a lot of the things they did, said or represented. We could easily picture Jesus as a tongue-in-cheek stand-up-comedian making humorously retorting remarks to the Pharisees.

The disciples must have been snickering in the background as they saw Jesus do what they would only dare someone to do. They probably said, “I can't believe Jesus said that.”

The Pharisees created so many rules;
they absolutely took the fun out of life.

So Jesus said... there is one rule... Love each other.

Love has fun in it, it is creative and doesn't take itself too seriously. We are erroneously prone people and we can make fun of our own inadvertent mistakes.

Some times we take our lives too seriously.
And take things around us too seriously.
Don't take yourself too seriously.

Loosen up.

Enjoy the moment. If you are the first to poke fun at yourself it disarms others who would. You will also get a laugh and create a positive environment. Then joy will be there and everyone will not take themselves so seriously.

When we are all having fun, ideas come. God's Spirit of creativity has a chance to find a door open It can come into us, and come out from us.

Ideas and innovation come out of joy, hilarity, looking at things differently, having fun.

Nothing is sacred... just that we love.
The unique peculiarities in others inspire us versus disturb us... when we lovingly accept uniqueness. Conformity stifles creativity. Non-conformity, freedom of individual expression (acceptance of) opens up channels for creativity. Spirit interacting, love flowing, creates the creative, the innovative.


Dwell in Spirit and interact in Spirit...
love and acceptance.

Be Still... listen to the Spirit's voice.
Connect to Spirit... receive a fresh view of things.


“Now I (Spirit) will tell you new things I have not mentioned before, secrets you have not yet heard. They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, `We knew that all the time!'” (Isaiah 48:6, 7 NLT)

Creativity and having fun are linked.
When we are having fun we open up creative channels. Jesus said He would make our joy complete!

Allow new thoughts of Spirit to come to mind and create a hilarious moment in your Spiritual mind.

Jesus says... "abide, dwell in me and I will live in you and your joy will be complete. All things you ask for, see in your creative imagination, I am making for you.
So live and love and I will bring new life to you...
that's fun, fresh, alive, creative!"



Saturday, June 10, 2006

Never Eat Alone... the power of connection

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Never Eat Alone :
And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi
is about the importance of constantly networking in all we do.

The new economy is becoming more and more relationship based and
to build anything people need a variety of interactive relationships.

Keith Ferrazzi does a great job in bringing in this point.

We should be continually taking names. It is remarkable how powerful it is to just meet someone and what they will do. Especially when you get back in touch with them in areas where they could possible help or "connect" you to an important network link.

But to be effective it is imperative to know your mission and where you want to go.

The way you do everything is based on this.

Recently, I was working on what is called my "elevator speech." Which is... if you were on an elevator with someone and in just a minute conversation could you make a connection. I read many business books in a year and can pull out essential information quickly and then through "teaching the book" help entrepreneurs put the information to work. This is a tremendous asset for a business owner to get current cutting edge info and have a biz savvy person help them implement it quickly.

It is like "how would you like to have a great book you have been wanting to read, walking around with you and constantly talking to you. And then the book even talks back and answers your questions." That is what I, in essence, do for business people. Without your mission and direction simply and clearly defined, it is hard to explain to others what you do, let alone have them be able to tell someone else why what you do is so significant.

So make a list of everyone you know in some way, even the most insignificant way, and they can become excited about telling others about you and helping you meet others. Keith Ferrazzi gives some great guidelines for meeting those you don't know at all but want to.

He has a four steps to follow:
Draft off a reference. Someone you know probably knows a person you need to meet. Get them to help you.
State your value. People will talk to you if they see value for them to talk to you.
Talk little, say a lot. That's why drafting "elevator speeches" are important. I revised mine numerous times after trying it out on all kinds of people. Work to get this down.
Offer a compromise. Start off big, try for a lot and leave room to settle for less.

Never Eat Alone.... always be creating, nurturing and networking relationships. Lunches, coffees, snacks are great times to keep propelling the process. Add the new, develop the potential, and build on the established ones.

The people who love you the most will be there for you, and always be grateful and never neglect the privileges good relationships bring you.

Ferrazzi goes on to say "the more connections you establish, the more opportunities you'll have to make even more connections.

"The art of small talk, being open and risking vulnerability, opens a door for sincere, connecting communications." Our world or self esteem teaches us to be guarded. But genuineness speeds up the potential for trustworthiness.

Honesty, trusting create connection. First though adjust to the other person’s style. If you are with a “closed” person, don’t start out too “open.” If you are with an “open” person, watch being too “closed.”

Note Ferrazzi's website;
http://www.ferrazzigreenlight.com/nevereatalone/

The Bible says to confess your sins one to another. It may also be saying to be willing to honest with where you are right now. When with trusted people, this opens the door for healing and improvement.

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.”
James 5:16

Why do this? So others may pray for you and, when they do, you will have more power to overcome what you are dealing with.

We are all connected and the power of that connection is manifested when we are open with each other and ask for each other's help.

When we pray for those we meet. When we are open and honest(accepting and forgiving), we open up the Channels of Spirit drenched with power.

So our prayers unite us into Spirit Power cells that becomes transformational power.

Geffry Fields writes:
(from Connecting Circuits... they all must flow)
http://jesusisus.blogspot.com/2005/06/connecting-circuits-they-all-must-flow.html
We are designed as a community of power points where Spirit is in constant flow. When this flow breaks down, the whole thing doesn't work.This is critical to Supernatural functional power in our lives. Jesus Spirit engineered it that way.

In physics, technology everything is interconnected... our bodies are interconnected. When one part does not connect with the other part the whole configuration is bogged down. In cars, computers are designed so when one part malfunctions, the others pick up the slack. It still runs, but not as well.

For us to see the best of what is possible for us we must have our relationships fine tuned and connecting with great precision.This is so critical as the best of everything depends our relationships to others.

Where harmony prevails, power increases.

Great power is demonstrated when great harmony is functioning. This holds true for our Spiritual lives. When we combine in belief, hope and faith alongside others... share, pray, believe as a unit... great Spiritual Power ignites!...

"whatever you (two or three)bind on earth is bound in heaven."

Heaven and earth are linked. All the power of Heaven is prepared to launch. All circuits are opened and all the power of the universe flows freely.

(Note: when “bind” is used above it is a very strong word…it’s a cemented, emotional, mental, spiritual agreement of Heavenly authority.)

This cannot be emphasized too much. These kinds of team efforts, when talents and skills are combined in complementary ways, create supernatural power potential.

"Our relationships to others ON EARTH release Jesus Spirit Power in Us from Heaven."

Small mission teams networking with other small mission teams(with each team strong in their relationships among themselves and strong relationships connecting the teams) they can saturate the cracks and crevices of any social mass. It will be a well connected Power Circuit.

It will form a massive “mother” board, an invincible Spiritually-based platform.

Jesus is among us... literally… in Spirit,
connecting with THE Super Power.